While I was walking around yesterday, sweating profusely, I did a lot of thinking on the County Park splash pad fiasco. I was trying to understand the situation. This is my understanding.
- The City of Thunder Bay decides to build a splash pad in County Park. Why? I am not sure. They must have run out of consultants to hire freeing up some cash. Anyway, good for the kids in County Park.
- The City of Thunder Bay sets some sort of budget for the facility and issues a tender for the construction of one splash pad. Good for the kids in County Park.
- Because this project needs to be completed by a specific date, say the middle of June 2012 at the latest, I am sure the tender was issued early enough for the work to be completed by that date. What I have always found to be a good incentive for contractors to complete their projects on schedule are financial penalties. Lets say, $1000 for every day the project runs beyond the scheduled completion date. Also, having a schedule that includes bench mark dates that can be tracked by our city administration to ensure on time completion works well. That way, our city administrators would know if the project was falling behind. They could then take action. No. I’m serious. They could. Really!
- The City of Thunder Bay picks the successful bidder. A contractor that the city has no history with. Likely the lowest bidder. Sigh. Fingers crossed for the kids in County Park. At this point, you have to believe that city administration has SEEN the plans for the splash pad. Our engineers have viewed the drawings. I must believe that at this point, the city administrators are satisfied that permits for the construction of this facility will be issued. Thumbs up! All systems go!
- This is where it gets fuzzy. The City of Thunder Bay issues the permits that the contractor will need to construct the splash pad. The City of Thunder Bay hired the contractor and at some point, OK’d the plans for the splash pad. The City of Thunder Bay wants this splash pad built by the start of summer at the latest. The kids of County Park! The issuer of building and plumbing permits, hires a contractor to build a splash pad. There had to be plans. The issuer of building and plumbing permits had to review the plans. The issuer of building and plumbing permits had to be satisfied with the plans because they were paying somebody money to build the thing. The issuer of building and plumbing permits had to be monitoring the contract’s progress. Any problem that came up must have been dealt with immediately because there was a drop dead completion date of mid June at the latest, remember? The issuer of building and plumbing permits then withholds the plumbing permit delaying the completion date because……
- So much for the kids of County Park.
I wonder who was in charge of this. Alexander? Mauro? Value for money. We taxpayers are not getting value for money. Its just a frigging splash pad and our highly paid management team can’t get something that simple built on schedule. We are not building a nuclear reactor here. Its just a splash pad!
I said it before and I will say it again. I believe the City of Thunder Bay has the most incompetent managers anywhere. This is just another example of why.
